HHS Awards Contracts Totaling More Than $19 Million to Advance the Development of New Therapeutics for the Treatment of Exposure to Ionizing Radiation

The HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response today awarded seven contracts totally more than $19 million to accelerate development of novel medical countermeasures as part of the national plan to prepare for the public health and medical impact of a radiological or nuclear terrorist attack in the United States.

ASPR’s Office of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority awarded the contracts to support the advanced development of a wide array of promising medical countermeasures in their early stages of product development and commercialization.

“Today, we are taking a major step toward preparedness against radiological and nuclear threats,” said BARDA Director Dr. Robin Robinson. “A new generation of pharmaceutical products will be available in the coming years from this advanced development work.”

The medications targeted by these contract awards replenish the normal blood supply, including blood cells, blood vessels, and bone marrow stem cells, which are depleted by high-level exposure to harmful radiation, the type carried by a dirty bomb.

With this funding, advanced development will lead these products through the manufacturing and regulatory milestones needed for the acceptance and approval of an investigative new drug by the Food and Drug Administration. After FDA approval, products may be acquired as medical countermeasures for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).

The stockpile has large quantities of medicine and medical supplies to protect the American public if there is a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out, which could occur in a terrorist attack. When federal and local authorities agree that the SNS is needed, medicines would be delivered to any state in the U.S. within 12 hours. Each state has plans to receive and distribute SNS medicine and medical supplies to local communities as quickly as possible.

Contracts were awarded to:

Developing improved medical countermeasures is a top objective laid out in the 2007 Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE) Implementation Plan for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Threats. That plan and additional information are available at http://www.hhs.gov/aspr/barda/index.html